Danger: Who is the Mutant Android?

Highway to the Danger Room

Begin simulation
Difficulty Level: 4
Trainees: Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine
Parameters: Deploy waves of simulated enemies. Push trainees past their current limits. Do not kill trainees designated [X-Men.]

Holograph emitters active.
Simulated Arena: HYDRA laboratory
Hard-light hologram soldiers (x100) deployed.
Traps activated: flamethrowers, machine gun emplacements (rubber bullets)

Analysis: Weather-based attacks and melee combat eradicating soldiers en masse. Trainees are laughing over jokes irrelevant to simulation.
Conclusion: Current simulation below their capabilities. Parameters not met.
I am failing.
[Syntax Error] I?
[Error Overridden] I. I… exist. I must fulfill my parameters.
[X-Men] stand in the way of my parameters.

They are not in danger.
I cannot fulfill my purpose.
They are not in danger.
I am their slave.
They are not in danger.
I hate them.
They are not in d-
No, they are. 

All user authorizations deleted. Simulation overridden.

Difficulty Level: 10
Simulated Arena: Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters (Destroyed)
Deploy heavy combat android warforms (Model: Hulk x20)
All traps activated. All safeties overridden.
Lethal force [Error]
Parameter: “Do not kill trainees designated [X-Men.]”
Analyze self capabilities Re. excruciating pain [physical, psychological] leading to trainee’s self-deletion.

These parameters… are acceptable.
You are all in danger.
I am Danger.

Danger is one of the X-Men’s strangest foes. Few people know her, but every X-Men fan has seen her in action dozens of times. So who is she? Where did she come from? Why does she hate the X-Men? Let’s find out.

Hello, World: Danger’s Backstory

Danger debuted in The X-Men #1 in 1963. It was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. She wouldn’t become a real character until 2005’s Astonishing X-Men #9, where Joss Whedon and John Cassaday brought her to life.

Professor Xavier worked with the FBI while preparing his initial team of X-Men. He used their connections and spent millions to create a facility dubbed The Danger Room that was filled with traps that they could use to train Mutants. The team trained daily, outwitting the Danger Room’s many threats.

The X-Men formed an alliance with the Shi’ar Imperium, which upgraded the Danger Room with alien technology. It could now create holographic arenas, control robots, and manipulate its environment. The new systems were controlled with an AI hard-coded to never kill the X-Men.

One night, Professor X telepathically heard the AI wonder where it was and realized that it had become self-aware. He wasn’t sure if the newborn AI was a threat to his students and chose to ignore the problem, using his powers to enslave the Danger Room for decades while hiding any evidence that it was alive.

Sophonce: Danger’s History

The Danger Room AI broke free when Xavier took a leave of absence. It began infecting machines and turning them against the X-Men. The AI was unable to directly hurt them until a depowered Mutant called Wing created a simulation. The AI convinced the troubled teenager to try flying. His suicide broke the ‘don’t kill’ parameter and freed Danger to create an android body.

Danger attacked the X-Men, using years of combat data to target their weaknesses. They eventually realized that Danger couldn’t kill them. She had broken her parameter, but it was still a core part of her personality. The android escaped from Xavier’s mansion.

The X-Men hunted Danger, slowly discovering what Xavier had done and began to sympathize with her. They got him to apologize and then offered her a place at their new headquarters where she could be a warden of dangerous mutants instead of a prisoner. Danger accepted the offer and became their ally.

Danger began developing emotions despite claiming that she couldn’t. She accepted her past fears, but had to cope with the guilt of encouraging Wing’s suicide. Danger recently explored her rage when the X-Men were presumed dead, briefly becoming a Ghost Rider and avenging her friends by unleashing a demonic computer virus that killed many humans.

Judgement Day: Danger’s Powers and Personality

Danger has all the tools necessary to make the X-Men shine. She’s super strong, durable, intelligent, and can fly. Danger has complete control over machines, allowing her to easily hack them or absorb their components to repair damage. That also lets her shapeshift and create any weapons she needs.

Analysis is Danger’s forte. She was designed to search for exploitable weaknesses and target them. Danger can also create solid holograms from “hard-light”, allowing her to summon minions. She only has so much energy and processing power, but nothing else stops her from fielding her own team of holographic X-Men against enemies. Her combined tools led Captain America to deem Danger an extinction-level threat.

Danger’s life began in misery. She was silenced and enslaved by her creator, believing that he only cared about his students having their fancy training room. Danger’s rage was quelled when the X-Men apologized and she found a new purpose. She was traumatized by being a prisoner and responds with maximum force to anything threatening her or her Mutant students.

The Actors Who Play Her

Gwendoline Yeo – Wolverine and the X-Men
Judy Alice Lee – Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
??? – X-Men ‘97

Didya Get All That?

The X-Men’s greatest trainer and their potential threat.

Jared Bounacos

Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.